A religious cleric, who slapped a woman during live TV debate in India, has been arrested following complaint by the media house.
Maulana Ejaz Arshad Qasmi slapped, who regularly appears on TV debates, assaulted Farah Faiz, an advocate fighting against Triple Talaq, a contentious issue in India, which has also taken political overtones.
LIVE बहस में मौलाना ने महिला पर हाथ उठाया. @Zee_Hindustan किसी भी तरह की हिंसा समर्थन नहीं करता. #MaulanaSlapsWoman के साथ करें ट्वीट... pic.twitter.com/TAkppSMT7f
— ZEE HINDUSTAN (@Zee_Hindustan) July 17, 2018
According to reports, the debate became heated when Faiz argued that talaq-e-bidat (triple talaq) is not a form of divorce recognized in the Quran. This led to a war of words between the two and resulted in Maulana Qasmi getting into a physical scuffle.
The clip of the scuffle went viral on social media with Twitterati condemning the Maulana for his behavior. Some even suggested the woman slapped him first, which infuriated him.
See, how this Maulana respects women. He slapped her, because he was not able to bear that, a lady is raising her voice in front of him.
— Khushboo (@KhushbooTweets) July 17, 2018
Will any Imam release Fatwa against him??#MaulanaSlapsWoman @amritabhinder @DrNausheenKhan @TarekFatah @FaraaahKhan https://t.co/RRSBC0fTwO
Government position
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has expressed his views against “triple talaq” several times and the country’s Supreme Court last year banned the concept as “unconstitutional”.
On Wednesday, India’s Federal Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad wrote to the opposition Congress President Rahul Gandhi stressing the need for approving the Women Reservation Bill, the law prohibiting Triple Talaq and imposing penal consequence on those who violate the law, and the law prohibiting Nikah Halala.
Without justifying what that Maulana Kasmi did, isn’t this true that woman slapped him first ? 😀😀😀😀😀
— Alok Bhatt (@alok_bhatt) July 18, 2018
“You will appreciate that the latter two not only give the women of the Muslim community an unequal treatment but also seriously compromise their dignity,” he is quoted to have said.
Some Muslim organizations, however, maintain that the government should not interfere in their personal laws and that the government is pushing this agenda only to create divide within the community to garner votes.
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